When sexy Joe Malone never calls after their explosive kiss, Kylie shoves him out of her mind. Until she needs a favor, and it’s a doozy. Something precious to her has been stolen and there’s only one person with unique finder-and-fixer skills that can help—Joe. It means swallowing her pride and somehow trying to avoid the temptation to throttle him—or seduce him.

the best thing to do . . .

No, Joe didn’t call after the kiss. He’s the fun time guy, not the forever guy. And Kylie, after all she’s been through, deserves a good man who will stay. But everything about Kylie makes it damned hard to focus, and though his brain knows what he has to do, his heart isn’t getting the memo.

… is enjoy the ride.

As Kylie and Joe go on the scavenger hunt of their lives, they discover surprising things about each other. Now, the best way for them to get over “that kiss” might just be to replace it with a hundred more.

Kylie needs help. Someone has stolen the carved wooden penguin that is the only item she has left from her grandfather. She engages Joe to help her find it. He doesn’t really think she’s serious until she tells him that she’s getting what amounts to threatening letters, then he’s on the case.

Joe and Kylie kissed at one point after a night of drinking and Joe hasn’t stopped thinking about the kiss since that time. He tries to keep himself and his feelings separated from Kylie but eventually decides that he just needs to give in and admit that he wants her for his own.

This was another great book from Shalvis. She does romance so very well and I love all of the different situations that the characters find themselves in. This one had romance, sexy times and humor which is always a wonderful combination.

I really liked Kylie and Joe together. Their personalities played off of each other perfectly. They were both strong and capable people but they each had their own vulnerabilities as well. Just a great match.

The Heartbreaker Bay series by Jill Shalvis has been great fun to read and with each book, the series keeps getting better and better. About that Kiss comes out today and it’s Joe and Kylie’s book. They have such amazing chemistry together that I’m so thrilled to be spotlighting their story here on Book Binge.

When sexy Joe Malone never calls after their explosive kiss, Kylie shoves him out of her mind. Until she needs a favor, and it’s a doozy. Something precious to her has been stolen and there’s only one person with unique finder-and-fixer skills that can help—Joe. It means swallowing her pride and somehow trying to avoid the temptation to throttle him—or seduce him.

the best thing to do . . .

No, Joe didn’t call after the kiss. He’s the fun time guy, not the forever guy. And Kylie, after all she’s been through, deserves a good man who will stay. But everything about Kylie makes it damned hard to focus, and though his brain knows what he has to do, his heart isn’t getting the memo.

… is enjoy the ride.

As Kylie and Joe go on the scavenger hunt of their lives, they discover surprising things about each other. Now, the best way for them to get over “that kiss” might just be to replace it with a hundred more.

Excerpt

Joe studied her. “I asked you once before, but now I’m going to ask you again. Is there something going on between you two?”

She tossed up her hands. “Why do you both keep asking me that about each other?”

His eyes narrowed. “I thought nothing was going on.”

“And before today, I could’ve passed a lie detector test on that,” she said.

“What happened today?”

She paused. Not because she had anything to be ashamed of, but because she wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“Kylie.”

She sighed. “It’s nothing.”

“Try again,” Joe said and gave her the very male universal go on gesture.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. He . . . finally made a move on me.”

Joe didn’t budge. Not a blink, not a muscle twitch, nothing, but she could’ve popped corn off the electric tension coming off him.

“Describe ‘made a move,’ ” he finally said.

She crossed her arms. “And again, how is this relevant to my case?”

He just gave her that careful stare again and she thought wow, those eyes of his should be registered as a lethal weapon because she found herself opening her mouth and spilling her guts. “He kissed me.”

“He kissed you.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Do you know that you often repeat what I say?”

“What kind of a kiss?” he asked.

She was momentarily bewildered. “I don’t know. It was a kiss. A normal kiss. A nice kiss.” She cocked her head at him. “How many kinds of kisses are there?”

He just looked at her for a long moment before coming toward her. He backed her to the wall and pressed his big hands on either side of her head.

“There are many kinds of kisses,” he said.

Her breath had backed up in her throat, where her heart had lodged, pounding wildly. “S-s-such as?”

“Such as this one.” And then he leaned in and covered her mouth with his.

At the touch of Joe’s mouth, Kylie’s brain stopped being capable of rational thought. His tongue gave a knee-weakening stroke against hers and she let out a shockingly needy moan as she clutched at him, fisting her hands in the material of his shirt at his chest. Only when he’d thoroughly plundered and pillaged and left her boneless did he lift his head and look into her eyes.

“Wow,” she whispered, fully aware she was still holding on to him like he was a lifeline, but the bones in her legs had liquefied. “I mean . . .” She shook her head. “Wow.”

He nodded. “Yeah. So to be clear, that wasn’t ‘a normal kiss’ or even ‘a nice kiss.’ It was a ‘wow’ kiss. Any questions?”

“Just one,” she said softly. “Can I have another?”

Joe didn’t have to be asked twice. His mouth immediately descended again, his fingers sliding into her hair to change the angle of the kiss to suit him. It was a controlled, alpha thing to do, but she had only one thought—nothing about the usually carefully, purposely leashed Joe was in control at the moment.

And she liked it.

She had no idea how long they went at it because she was in absolute heaven. Who knew that the man could use his preferred silent mode to communicate in a way that she finally approved of?

Only when she was completely breathless and about to strip him down to his birthday suit did she manage to pull back.

“Any more questions?” he asked, also a little bit breathless, which was more than slightly gratifying. Dumbly, she shook her head. His eyes softened and he gently he stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “And FYI? Gib’s an idiot.”

Order the Book:

Heartbreaker Bay Series

About the Author

Jill Shalvis

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras with her family and far too many assorted quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental.

Look for Jill’s latest, LOST AND FOUND SISTERS on shelves and e-readers now, and get all her bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold.

Visit Jill’s website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-mountains adventures.

When sexy Joe Malone never calls after their explosive kiss, Kylie shoves him out of her mind. Until she needs a favor, and it’s a doozy. Something precious to her has been stolen and there’s only one person with unique finder-and-fixer skills that can help—Joe. It means swallowing her pride and somehow trying to avoid the temptation to throttle him—or seduce him.

the best thing to do . . .

No, Joe didn’t call after the kiss. He’s the fun time guy, not the forever guy. And Kylie, after all she’s been through, deserves a good man who will stay. But everything about Kylie makes it damned hard to focus, and though his brain knows what he has to do, his heart isn’t getting the memo.

… is enjoy the ride.

As Kylie and Joe go on the scavenger hunt of their lives, they discover surprising things about each other. Now, the best way for them to get over “that kiss” might just be to replace it with a hundred more.

About that Kiss is the fifth book in Jill Shalvis’ Heartbreaker Bay series and I really think that Jill Shalvis has finally hit her stride with this series. The first couple of books were okay or just good for me but the last couple have really entertained me and I’m happy to report that this book was another good one.

Kylie and Joe are in the same circle of friends and they kissed but aren’t talking about that kiss because Joe never called Kylie after that explosive kiss. Kylie has done a whole lot of thinking about the kiss but is stubborn enough to not bring it up since it obviously didn’t affect Joe at all. Now Joe is all up in her grill about a birthday gift that he wants Kylie to make for his sister but she’s much too busy to help him out (and just a tad bit annoyed with him that she wants to see him squirm). All of that is flipped on its head when something of personal value is taken from her and she needs Joe’s help finding it.

Joe is a lone ranger. He works better alone so why he thought that Kylie would let him work this case alone, he’ll never know. It’s hard to keep her in his thoughts and not in his space when she is determined to be his partner on finding her missing penguin. The more time that they spend together, the harder it is for him to remember that he’s not good enough for her. She deserves far better but every moment in her company, his resolve to stay away goes up in smoke.

Seeing these two grow closer and closer was fun at the same time that it was sweet. I loved how grown up the two of them were about their feelings. Joe had distinct reasons for feeling the way that he did and so did Kylie. Kylie wasn’t a hot and cold kind of person and I appreciated that though she was torn about her feelings for Joe, she didn’t lead anyone else (Gib) on until she figured her shit out. I also really adored that though Joe thought Kylie was a little crazy with her request, he realized almost from the jump how important this was to her and he took her seriously.

There’s a lot going on in this book but it was a lot of fun to figure things out, fall in love right along with Joe and Kylie and get to know the other characters from this world that we haven’t seen a lot of in the other books. There are still stories to be told and I’m here for it all. This was another winner from Jill Shalvis and I can’t wait for more.

When Sean O’Riley shows up at the Hartford Bed & Breakfast for his older brother’s bachelor weekend, he’s just hoping to make it through the weekend. What he’s not expecting is to come face to face with the woman he lost his virginity to a decade ago—a woman he’s never really forgotten.

The last time Lotti Hartford saw Sean, she told him she loved him while he said nothing. Now, ten years later, she’s just looking for a good time. For once, she wants to be the wild and free one, and Sean – the good time guy – is the perfect candidate.

But as the weekend continues, Sean realizes that after a lifetime of being the hook-up king, he’s ready to find happily-ever-after, and he wants it with Lotti. But will she open her heart to him again? As Christmas sweeps through the little B&B, he can only hope love and magic are in the air.

Sean O’Riley and all of his friends head to Napa Valley for a weekend of wine tasting and fun in celebration of his brother Finn, and his fiancé Pru, getting married. When they get to the bed and breakfast that Pru insisted staying at, Sean is shocked to see Lotti behind the check-in counter. Sean and Lotti had been friends in high school and then they’d lost their virginity together. Lotti declared her love for Sean but then in the next breath told him she was moving. Though Lotti attempted to stay in touch, Sean didn’t respond.

Now all these years later Sean knows that his 16-year-old self was an idiot. He wants nothing more than to be with Lotti. He admits that he wanted to back in high school as well but was too filled with fear to act on his feelings. Lotti is determined to have no more relationships so turns Sean away. Sean however is persistent and isn’t about to give up on the woman of his dreams.

Jill Shalvis always writes such sweet and charming stories. This novella was done so well, and I found myself smiling through most of it.

Sean and Lotti were perfect together and I loved how Shalvis didn’t try to make their relationship move too fast. The initial romance takes place within a few days but I could tell that it would be a lasting one.

The whole wedding and holiday theme of this novella wrapped up so nicely with Sean and Lotti’s story. If you want a short Christmas romance to get you in the mood for the holidays then you need to pick this one up.

When Sean O’Riley shows up at the Hartford Bed & Breakfast for his older brother’s bachelor weekend, he’s just hoping to make it through the weekend. What he’s not expecting is to come face to face with the woman he lost his virginity to a decade ago—a woman he’s never really forgotten.

The last time Lotti Hartford saw Sean, she told him she loved him while he said nothing. Now, ten years later, she’s just looking for a good time. For once, she wants to be the wild and free one, and Sean – the good time guy – is the perfect candidate.

But as the weekend continues, Sean realizes that after a lifetime of being the hook-up king, he’s ready to find happily-ever-after, and he wants it with Lotti. But will she open her heart to him again? As Christmas sweeps through the little B&B, he can only hope love and magic are in the air.

Sean’s book! Woot!

Holiday Wishes is a holiday short story featuring Sean O’Riley. If you’re a reader of this series, you’ll remember Sean from the first book in this series. He’s the heroes playboy brother who has done a lot of growing up in the last few books. He went from being the guy you loved but couldn’t really count on in a pinch to a really stand up guy who gets things done, no matter what he had to do. In this book, Sean comes into contact with a beautiful blast from his past.

Lotti Hartford. It’s been ages since Sean has seen Lotti. They were friends growing up and then her family moved away and Sean let her get away. It’s safe to say that all of these years later, Lotti isn’t thrilled at seeing the guy she lost her virginity to and the guy who didn’t love her back again after all of this time. She’s grown now. She’s not the same little girl that he knew and she has no interest in getting to know the Sean O’Riley that just showed up with his family and friends at her B&B.

Jill Shalvis is back with another charming story from her Heartbreaker Bay gang. Everyone that we know and love is back for more laughs, a wedding and more romance. It was good to see everyone again and to laugh at the shenanigans these guys get into when they’re stranded at Lotti’s B&B for Finn & Pru’s joint bachelor/bachelorette party.

It was a lot of fun seeing Sean try to get back into Lotti’s good graces. She had plans and she wanted to get away from her life for a little bit and she did not want or need the distraction of Sean O’Riley, not again. She barely survived the last time but how could anyone not want more Sean??? He was such a charming hero that my heart went all soft on him at every turn in this story. I wish the story had been longer but for the page time that we get, we get the good stuff.

Shalvis is really shining in this series and I’m enjoying it a lot more than the last couple of series so woo hoo! I definitely recommend this short romance if you’re a fan of this series and of Jill Shalvis in general.

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